Seat Belts Save Lives – Why Is This Message Lost On Some People?
Seat Belts Work
The use of safety belts, child restraint safety seats and child booster seats are required by Tennessee law. These can help save you and your passengers’lives in the event of a traffic crash. Tennessee law enforcement officers can stop drivers and issue citations for failure to observe the seatbelt or child restraint laws. Tennessee was the first state in the country to pass a Child Passenger Protection Law requiring children to be restrained in child safety seats (car seats and booster seats.
Seat belts and child safety seats help prevent injury five different ways, by:
1. Preventing ejection: Ejection greatly increases the chance of death or serious injury. The chance of being killed in a crash by being ejected from a vehicle is one in eight. Safety belts virtually eliminate ejection. The belted driver stays inside the car and is better protected from injury.
2. Shifting crash forces to the strongest parts of the body’s structure. To get the most benefit from a seat belt, be aware of the following points:
• The lap belt should be worn low over the pelvis with the bottom edge touching the tops of the thighs snugly.
• The shoulder belt should be worn over the shoulder and across the chest, not under the arm and over the abdomen. Make certain that the shoulder belt is not worn so loosely that it slides off the shoulder.
• Pregnant women should wear the lap belt below the abdomen and the shoulder belt above the belly.
3. Spreading crash forces overa wide area of the body. Safety belts reduce the possibility of injury from “hostile” surfaces inside the car (steering wheel, dashboard, windshield, controls, etc.). Even if the belted driver collides with some of these surfaces, it happens with much less force and often results in less serious injury.
4. Keeping the body more closely in the “properdriving posture.” The belt keeps the driver “in the driver’s seat.” The belted driver is better able to deal with emergencies and often avoids more serious trouble.
5. Protecting the head and spinal cord. The belted driver is less likely to be stunned or made unconscious by the crash and is better able to cope with the situation. Research has found that proper use of lap/shoulder belts reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent (for occupants of light trucks, 60 percent and 65 percent respectively)
As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney it seems like a “no-brainer” that when we get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle we buckle our seatbelts, but when one monitors automobile accidents around the state like the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s do at Phillip Miller & Associates, we see so many needless serious injuries and deaths that could have been avoided if the driver had simply fastened their seat belt.
Phillip Miller is a Tennessee Accident Attorney specializing in
Phillip has an AVVO rating of 10.0 (Superb), has been designated as a “Superlawyer”, and is the President Elect of the Tennessee Association for Justice.
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